Hi Jan, and welcome! I was new to this forum in 2011. This is a great place to learn about hostas and the people are wonderful! Sometimes I feel like the whole forum is out there with me when I'm wandering through my gardens. Here's my story: In 2006, I bought 6 hostas in the fall for 75 cents each, planted them at the back of the fence and forgot about them. In 2008, I divided an Undulata Albomarginata into 10 hostas to form a border around my pachysandra bed. In the spring of 2010, I noticed that the 75 cent hostas had grown into lovely plants despite the fact that they had been ignored for the past four years. I also noticed that all the other perennials I had planted over the past four years had died! So, I made a trip to the local nursery to get some more hostas to fill in the spots where my perennials had died. It was on that day that I made the startling discovery that those names on the tags like Elegans and Frances Williams meant something. I ended the season with about 70 new varieties. During the fall of 2010, I found this forum and for the next 6 months, I read each and every post. I started making lists and finding nurseries to buy the hostas on my list. On March 28, 2011, my husband drove 60 miles (one way) to pick up some of the hostas on my list. He came back with 11. When the first nursery in our area opened on April 1, 2011, I bought 9 more. On April 2, I drove the 60 miles with my husband and got another 23. Well, before I knew it, I ended up with 96 hostas in our house waiting for the last frost! By the end of May, I had aquired about 180 hostas and swore that I was done buying for the season. I managed to buy 134 more, for a total of 314 new ones in 2011. My kids call me the crazy hosta lady. My son still talks about driving with 40 hostas in the back of the car, accompanied by a chirping cricket for 300 miles! My daughter, a Creative Writing major in college, wrote her final paper about my hosta obsession. She got an "A", her professor was intrigued that people actually collect hostas and will go to great lengths to find a certain cultivar. I don't know how large our gardens are, but the grass in the back is slowly disappearing. We have plans to start planting them in the park in back of us when we run out of room. I love to grow my hostas in full sun, I won an irrigation system in a contest that keeps them cool with misting water during the hottest part of the day. Gesila

How old is the house? How old is the HVAC system? The duct system etc? Most HVAC contractors aren't going to "touch" a system (to move it or whatever), then they get blamed when it doesn't work / and or if there are performance issues now --- that even you may not know fully yet. These are the kinds of things that fall into the realm of "money is no object" meaning new system / bells whistles etc. OR you find someone desperate which in turn may make you desperate if they make a mess of your system. (air flow, mechanical and otherwise all these things play a part and even more so if you live in a more extreme climate -- Hot or Cold) From the picture it doesn't look like the move is a big one, but a flat diagram just doesn't provide the detail that in person view would show. Given that this is a new home (at least for you) it wouldn't be a bad idea, if you go thru with this purchase to begin your search for a trustworthy Licensed HVAC contractor in your area. (which is a mouthful these days -- for a variety of reasons -- the big one is that HVAC is in the cusp of going thru some dramatic changes.) I service the Katy, Texas area.

Husband and I are retired together, no kids, 1 dog, and currently live in a 3 bed/2 bath , 1,200 sf house. It's done us well, but the rooms and bathrooms are just too tiny. I'd rather have 2 bedrooms but much larger rooms. More storage, more open, bigger kitchen, etc. I'm looking at 2 bed /2 bath houses right now in the 1500-1800 square foot range. But I have 2 concernst We started our married life in a 1400 square foot house, and it was comfortable while it was "just us two". Add children, and we were bursting at the seams. Looking back, if I'd had the know-how and the money to make some changes, we could've made it much more comfortable; for example, we couldn't have made a mudroom appear, but I could've done a built-in by the door that could've worked well. But the house wasn't wasn't built "efficiently"; for example, we had a 36" wide x 48" deep pantry. Quite a few things could've been tweaked to make the house better /more efficient. We moved to our current house, which is 2400 square feet. It was great when the kids were all at home, but now ... we're swimming in unnecessary space. I know some retirees say they want to keep "the big house", but I hate it. At the height of summer /winter, our power bill tops $400; we're comfortable financially, but I despise paying to heat spaces we aren't using ... and our house isn't set up to close off those un-used areas. Similarly, our property taxes have skyrocketed lately ... in 3-4 years they've gone from $900 to $3700. Yes, people in my area are up in arms! I can think of things I'd rather do with my retirement dollars. Thoughts based upon my experiences: - I think around 1500-1600 is "right sized" for two people. - Be careful about reaching for larger rooms. My 2400 square foot house has larger rooms, and everything's expensive to fix ... new carpet, new countertops, because of the quantity needed, it's all more expensive than I think it should be. - It seems to me that the smaller house was harder to keep clean, BUT -- looking back -- I had more clutter then, and I wasn't as efficient as I am now. The hard part was moving the kids' toys before I could vacuum, moving the vacuum so I could reach the ceiling fan brush, etc. - This is a rarely-discussed topic, but in both of my houses, I've had too many finishes! I have to store a vacuum for my carpeted areas + a dust broom for the hardwood + a mop for the linoleum and tile. I have to store 4-5 types of light bulbs. Ideally you'd minimize the finishes and streamline your cleaning -- you'd start cleaning hardwood and just move on through the rooms rather than stopping to change instruments. - Having good, planned storage matters. When I lived in the small house, I had one closet that had to house coats + linens. Do not skimp on storage space! - The choices you make in building can make the house FEEL larger: natural light especially can make a big difference. And let's not start on how jealous I am of my mother's new tilt-in windows -- so easy to clean! - Layout makes a difference. As my grandmother neared 100 years old, she could do her own laundry, but she could not get a basket of dirty clothes from her bedroom at one end of the house to the laundry at the other end of the house. - I don't like bathrooms that're minimal. No, I'm not advocating super-sized bathrooms in which you could play baseball, but go a step above the codes. - Think about how many bathrooms you need. With two of you and occasional guests, do you need two full baths? Or one full and one powder room? Bathrooms are real work to keep clean. - I mentioned inflation above ... hopefully your retirement years will be long, but while you're building, it'd be smart to keep two things in mind: 1) This inflation we've experienced since Covid has been genuinely life-changing for a lot of people; it's smart not to build at the top of your budget. Who knows what kind of inflation'll hit us in the future. 2) It's smart to build your retirement budget around ONE spouse's Social Security ... because at some point only one of you will be left, and you want the longer-living spouse to be able to afford to stay in this house. My vote would be for a smaller house and to downsize any possessions as much as possible and not fill it up. Very good point. The older I get, the less stuff I want to buy. The fewer clothes I want in my closet. I used to have a lot of stuff for the kids. Because I had only girls and nieces, I always had boxes of clothes I was saving "to be grown into" or "to pass on to the cousins". You did say that you are retired, so not getting any younger. True, but that doesn't mean the OP is old. I retired at 55, and I just turned 58. Adding 50% more space will certainly take longer to clean, everything else being the same. It will be harder to clean if you add 50% more stuff. That's well said. See Don Aslett's highly useful (and funny) book "Make Your House Do Your Housework" https://www.amazon.com/Make-Your-House-Do-Housework/dp/1558703845 Love that book! It seriously changed the way I look at my house. Go to open houses and walk around spaces to get a feel for whether the layout is practical and affords the kind of room size you want. Excellent idea! We love our efficient galley kitchen Yes, kitchens can be too large -- even if cooking is your favorite hobby, large isn't necessarily better. Efficient is what's best! Most people want bigger bathrooms. We don't care. It seems that a lot of people want this-or-that for status reasons more than actual function. The main thing is that so many homes of all sizes are not designed well. Can we put a gold star beside this comment? But, the kitchen has a lot of cabinets, a small reach-in pantry I'd rather have a small-but-efficient kitchen and a large walk-in pantry. Pantries let you see everything at once, and pine shelves are significantly cheaper than storing things in cabinets /under countertops. Also, a robot vacuum is a huge improvement over regular corded vacuums, too. I luuuuv my Roomba. I'd recommend "building in" a spot in your broom closet with a dedicated outlet. Many people on these forums have a main home and a vacation home, so they shouldn't be telling people with one home to live with less space! ;-) This is a rather affluent board. Do what works for your family and don't worry about what someone else would do or wouldn't do. I don't hear the OP trying to "keep up with the Jones" at all; rather, I hear a person who's trying to find the path to "right sized". That's not an easy question. Moving is a big pain Ugh, never a truer thing was said. Also, reconsider the furniture that you've purchased over the years. There was a trend for a while where you could barely find anything that wasn't oversized or dark. Your furniture might be contributing to the cramped feel of your current space. Two thoughts on this very good point: 1) Note that you can buy "apartment sized" furniture ... it's the right choice for smaller houses. 2) As the world's changed, our furniture needs have changed. When I was a child, my mother had a very large desk in the corner of the dining room, and it was heavily used. Our wide hallway had floor-to-ceiling bookcases, and they were packed tight. Today so much is digital ... those things aren't nearly so important as they were. On the other hand, our only TV was a B&W 13" on a metal stand ... we devote much more space to our TV today. If I lived with a partner in this house I'd finish my basement so we could "escape" full-time togetherness from time to time. Be realistic about that. Whereas, even after 2 1/2 years of both being retired, my husband and I are almost always in the same room. If you decide to go bigger, accept the fact that paid household help may be an additional budget expense Even if you don't "go bigger", you may need help as you grow older. My grandmother could manage simple cooking and washing dishes -- even cleaning the sink and toilet -- but my mother and I used to take turns going over to do her vacuuming, shower cleaning, and bed-sheet changing. Difficult with a walker but completely un-navigable in a wheelchair. Let's talk walkers /wheelchairs: Most people don't go from being completely mobile to using a walker full-time. It's smart to build a spot in your mudroom where you can store a walker ... or even a wheelchair. This means you could take it in /out of the house as needed ... and have a good spot near the door to leave it. My grandmother had an indoor walker + an outdoor walker, and she had grab bars to help her make that transfer. Do keep in mind that few people who aren't in wheelchairs as young people + don't have an debilitating disease probably won't move on to a wheelchair permanently ... so put your money /energy into what's most likely. A bed can always be moved into the great room if needed, but not a toilet -- I'm screwed if something ever happens. Yeah, when my daughter was in nursing school and worked "home heath", she worked with one morbidly obese woman who could no longer get into her bathroom. My daughter had to spread a shower curtain on her bedroom floor and give the woman a sponge bath. And the poor woman had to, um ... "go" in one of those portable commode chairs. Talk about a loss of dignity. My own house ... built in 1970 ... has a 24" door into the master bathroom. Bad plan. Just saying - Breaking up the house cleaning will make it easier. I have a schedule kinda like that ... plus monthly chores that fit the seasons.

I often tell DH that he should have been born during the Renaissance. He's very artistic and very talented in several areas - he paints, sings, cooks, gardens, does calligraphy and designs jewelry. Over the years he has given me many pieces of jewelry both new and vintage - some have large stones, others have intricate designs, some have rare, exotic stones. It helps that we have been close friends for over 40 years with a married couple who are jewelers because while DH designs beautiful pieces he still needs a professional to source the material and have it crafted - and while our jeweler is making a profit we're not paying retail. They have contacts all over and just returned from the Tuscon Gem Show which specializes in colored gemstones and minerals. You can find large colored stones with high brilliance yet are relatively affordable if you look for other semi-precious stones like tourmaline, garnet, zircon, spinel. And they come in many different and unusual colors. The mark-up on jewelry is astonishing and while I appreciate those gorgeous pieces that celebrities wear I can't in good conscience spend that kind of money. Our friends have mentioned that a some of their younger customers have asked about lab created diamonds but few have purchased them - perhaps they go elsewhere since the store will order for them but they don't stock them. They'll also show them semi-precious stones and vintage pieces and often that's what the engaged couple end up selecting. Especially those looking for a unique, custom piece. My favorite ring is a simple eternity band with emerald cut diamonds in a channel setting that I wear everywhere - even in the pool. It has the requisite sparkle but isn't ostentatious. I do limit how much jewelry I wear whether it's costume or real - too much can make it appear tacky. I like to keep it simple.